The excitement over what will be Comic-Con's 50th anniversary in 2019 has already begun.

On the last day of the 49th annual convention held at the San Diego Convention Center, a dream giveaway contest was announced during a panel hosted by the staff of the brand-new Comic-Con Museum.

While the convention has been hosted annually at the San Diego Convention Center since 1991, the impact has had a ripple effect throughout the city, with off-site activations and programming reaching blocks away from the convention center itself. As a result, Comic-Con has been working on a permanent site to keep the momentum going all year long.

They've found their home.

The Comic-Con Museum will be housed at the former San Diego Hall of Champions, right in the heart of San Diego's Cultural Center, Balboa Park. And a new staff has been hired to run the venue, with Adam Smith serving as the Executive Director and Melissa Peterman as Vice President of Development.

Peterman announced the next big thing at a Comic-Con panel on July 22, 2018. Working with Omaze, Comic-Con Museum will grant one lucky person and a guest has a chance to win the following:

4-day passes to the 50th Comic-Con, including special access to Preview Night and photo booth opportunities

Enjoy a personal Comic-Con concierge who’ll help you plan out your schedule and make the most of your experience

Reserved seating in Hall H for the entire event

Attend Comic-Con Museum’s inaugural gala

Flight and hotel accommodations are included.

All that's needed? A donation, ranging from $10 to $5,000, with each monetary gift giving you more chances to win.

The museum made its debut on the always energized exhibit hall floor, where crowdsourcing for input directly from the fans was constant.

"The response from fans has been overwhelmingly positive. People are excited about the project and really want to be involved," said Peterman. More than 13,000 people entered a prize drawing for the Exclusive Comic-Con 2018 Mondo Print (Numbered 1) that was held at our booth on the exhibit floor."

At their booth during the show, Museum staff asked fans a different question each day to get their thoughts and ideas on the museum.

"One of the really interesting things we kept seeing, independent of the question of the day, were notes saying, ‘Thank you for doing this.’ It still gives us chills, because it reminds us of the positive impact we will have for the community," said Peterman.

"Fan involvement is a huge goal for us and we’re thinking quite radically about this," said Smith. "In the traditional model of a museum, expert curators build collections, decide what’s important and present it to the visiting public. We don’t have a problem with that model, but it’s not quite where we are headed. The fans of Comic-Con already have as much knowledge as any curator we could hire, and they own collections it would take decades to assemble. They’re creative and passionate, too, so we want to invite them into the heart of the process."

A $10 million donation from Comic-Con kicked-off the museum's capital campaign in which they are looking to raise an additional approximately $25 million in order to create a world class visitor attraction and a museum fans deserve to open by the end of 2020 or in early 2021.

Comic-Con kicked-off the museum's capital campaign in which they are looking to raise approximately $25 million in order to create a world class visitor attraction and a museum fans deserve to open by the end of 2020 or in early 2021.

"We’re very excited to have Comic-Con in San Diego year-round through the Comic Con Center Museum," said San Diego Convention Center Corporation Board Chair Gil Cabrera. "We understand how iconic Comic-Con is and this permanent home has all our support. In fact, we will include giving the a behind-the-scenes tour of our teams set-up of the event and as well as our 2019 Special Edition Comic-Con Chocolate Bars."